Caregiving. It is what we are all about. Caregiver. It is who every Winona Health employee is, and likely, so are you. We recently shared our We are all Winona video. If you haven’t seen it yet, I invite you to check it out on our website. This week, May 9-15, is National Hospital/Healthcare Week and we are celebrating our caregivers for the amazing ways they step up and step in to the work that touches lives. We all have some sense of what we think caregiving is, but I want to invite you to pause for a moment and look around you. Of course, it includes the outstanding clinical care provided by our physicians, associate providers, nurses, therapists, technicians, coordinators, assistants, aides, and more across many clinical disciplines. It also includes the wonderful supportive care provided by non-clinicians including our environmental services, food and nutrition, facilities, business office, home medical, information technology, and system improvement caregivers. Our 1,000+ caregivers are committed to delivering great care and service to our regional community. But caregiving goes beyond our walls and into the community via our connections with families, friends, and neighbors of patients. Caregiving also looks like a ride to a clinic appointment or scheduled surgery, holding someone’s hand during anxious moments, kids looking out for one another and sharing toys, bringing meals to those who need them, going out for coffee to share stories of life and maybe even lighten a burden. It is hearing the fear underneath the question of what comes next and walking with someone experiencing serious health or life concerns. Calling someone and actually telling them how important they are to you for no other reason than to be connected. Coaching kids’ sports, watching someone’s pets while they are out of town, running to the grocery store or pharmacy and delivering packages to another. You get the idea. It is caring about the big things and the little things. Because everything matters. You may wonder why I am going on about caregiving. Last year we spent a lot of time looking deeply into our past, our present, and our plans for the future. We invited input from all stakeholders internal and external to Winona Health, which, by the way, was an incredible process. As a result, we have re-cast our mission, vision, and values to guide us toward the emerging future. Our new mission statement is to inspire, recognize, and empower the caregiver in all of us. I love this new mission statement because it calls on the best part of our humanity to care for one another. Everyone is in need of some care, understanding, empathy, consideration, grace, you name it. And we invite you to join the amazing caregivers within Winona Health and become part of our community of caregivers. We all have a lot of recovery and building back to do post-pandemic, and it will take time, as healing does. I am confident of our future because human potential and ingenuity is a resource that does not run out. But as we do this work, we must address the toll we have all faced these past two years. A small shift in our approach to incorporate the attitude of caregiving of one another will move mountains. As we celebrate our Winona Health caregivers this week, please know that we embrace all of you in our mission to serve our beautiful, interconnected community. We are all Winona. To see our story, visit winonahealth.org/WeAreAllWinona.
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